Improvement in fish-hooks



NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOB JOHNSON AND HEZEKIQH HOWARTH, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNORS TOJOB JOHNSON.

IMPROVEMENT IN FISH-HOOKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 54,251, dated April 24,1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that lwe, JOB JOHNSON and HEZEKIH Howiinnri, of Brooklyn, inthe county of Kings and State of New York, have invented, made, andapplied to use a certain new and usefulIni proveinent in Fish Hooks orTraps; and we do hereby declare the followsition after the sh is caught.

Similar marks of reference denote the saine parts.

Spring-hooks have heretofore been made with a lance or hook that isthrown down by the action ofthe spring to strike into the nose or gillsof the fish, as may be seen in Letters Patent granted to Job Johnson7March 20, 1849.

The nature of our said invention consists in a spear, with or withoutbarbs, connected with the line, in combination with a hook carrying thebait and with a spring` and eye receiving the end of the bar-b or spearin such a manner that a pull of the iish upon the hook disconnects thespear and causes that and the hook to come toward each other, drawingthe hook more irmly into the iishs or animals mouth and causing thespear to stick into the fish or animal in the opposite direction.

In the drawings we have shown our hook as made of one piece of wire, thespear c at the end otl a spring-shank, b, with the eye c for the line d;thence the wire passes to the spring-coil e, and from the coil the wireextends as an ar1n,f, to the eye g and terminates as a hook, h.

lt will be seen by the drawings that when the hook is set for use theend of the spear a enters the eye g slightly, and. when the fish pullsupon the hook h the inclined end of c slides up out of the eye g by theaction ofthe spring-shank I) to throw the inclined end of the barb orspear a forward and out of said eye g, almost equaling the action of thespringcoil c to keep the'end c into said eye. Hence the slight pull ofthe fish separates o and g, and the spear a comes down upon the sli orlanimal at the same time that the spring e throws the hook upward, thussecurely holding the sh or animal between the hook and the spear.

The spear c inay bei'ormed with two'or more points, with or withoutbarbs, connected to thev shank b.

We do not limit ourselves to constructing this hook out 0f one piece ofwire, as the parts may be made ot' separate pieces of metal.

What we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The spear connected to the line, in combination. with the spring andwith the hook, substantially as specified, whereby the spring causes thehook and spear to come toward each other when the fish lbites at thebait, as set forth.

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our signatures this 8th day ofJanuary, A D. 1866.

JOB JOHNSON. HEZEKIAH HOWARTH. Witnesses:

LEMUEL W. SERRELL, GHAs. H. SMITH.

